Superior Spider-Man #18 - Necessary Evil Part II: Smack to the Future!

Otto isn't pleased by Miguel’s intervention in his contretemps with Stone, not least because it’s clear that Miguel has the advantage of him: Miguel knows that it’s Peter Parker under the mask, but Otto doesn't have the faintest clue who Miguel is. Former super-villain that he is, Otto reacts violently to this turn of events, and the two Spider-Men prepare to throw down. The two trade blows, and sneers at the other’s costume. Miguel’s threads can’t be cut or damaged, but Otto’s sprout four mechanical arms (!),so there’s that. Man, Otto’s getting cocky if he thinks he can get away with an outfit like that and have people not make a connection to Doctor Octopus. Anyhow, Stone, knowing which side he’s got to take, busts out a mini-spider-jammer, which takes Otto out of the fight. It also results in the car that Otto was carrying falling onto little Normie, but Miguel is able to rescue him before the kid is reduced to jelly. Naturally, this doesn't mollify Liz Allan, who’s furious at both Spider-Men for their recklessness, but neither sticks around to hear just how she plans to express that anger. Otto is determined to take control of the situation. Finding Miguel is now his top priority, especially as he thinks that it was Miguel who was able to “weaponize [his] spider-sense and turn it against [him]”. The fact that Miguel also knows that physically Otto is Peter Parker makes him a target of concern as well. Contacting Spider-Island, he orders his gang of minions to find this other Spider-Man. “Gotcha. So stop looking for Hobgoblin and--” “No, you addle-brained imbecile! Do both!” Otto is cut off mid-rant by a phone call from his girlfriend, Anna Maria, who wants to know if he’d like some help on his thesis. This reminds Otto that, as per Stone’s threat last issue, everything at Horizon is about to come the property of Allan Chemical, including Otto’s thesis. Otto’s ego is such that dealing with the threat of losing control of his intellectual property immediately becomes his top priority. Cut to Miguel, who’s on a rooftop with Stone, whom he abducted from the scene of his fight with Otto. Miguel is trying to figure out what the right thing to do is: keep Stone alive and preserve the 2099 status quo? But is that a status quo worth preserving? Unfortunately for Miguel, he does too much of this thinking out loud, and Stone - no idiot - is able to work out that preserving Stone’s life is mission-critical to Miguel. Stone aims to prove his hypothesis by leaping off the building; Miguel is forced to save him, but immediately webs him to a wall. Deciding he can’t trust his comlink to Stone-of-the-future, Miguel phones a friend, someone named Lyla who appears to have been important in the 2099 book. The two begin conferring on how to resolve the Horizon Labs-Alchemax situation. Speaking of Horizon Labs, over there Grady is using the time door to take photos of Stone’s sabotage of Peter Parker’s alpha-particle experiment back in ASM #692. Meanwhile, Otto is removing all of his tech from the premises. Caught in the act by Hector and Max, Otto takes his usual high-handed tone, even interrupting Max to take a call from his spider-minions, who've spotted the Hobgoblin (actually the Green Goblin in disguise, but let’s not quibble). Otto makes to leave to track down his foe, and Max, furious at Otto’s overall deportment in recent weeks, warns him that if leaves Horizon now, he needn't bother coming back. Otto, unfazed, departs. Max, seething, enters the lab to find out what his other scientists have been up to, and discovers the place flooded with chronotons! Grady, emerging from the past, makes an incoherent explanation: “They’re not just from the door, Max, and they’re not just chronotons. There’s alpha energy and… it’s all connected, man! This was always going to happen!” What was always going to happen? Enter Spider-Man 2099, a webbed-up Stone under his arm, to explain. This event, he explains, didn't start with his arrival. “It started way before! Now shut up… I’m from the future. 2099. And I have foreknowledge. This place is about to blow! But if you listen to me and do everything I say, we’ll all make it out of this alive…” Outside, Otto is making a hasty costume change in an alley, reflecting on how terrible his life is right now. “I've lost my job! My discoveries might get stolen? And I've barely worked on my thesis! And now my spider-sense is unreliable! My spider-bots are failing me! My minions are useless! And another Hobgoblin shows up! What else could go wrong?” Mary Jane picked a really bad time to call. As soon as Otto finds out who it is, he spits “Not now, woman! I’ll deal with you later!” Frustrated past his capacity to handle, and realizing that Spidey 2099 is at Horizon, Otto - desperate for something to hit? - swings over to the labs and socks Miguel in the jaw just as he’s about to explain how to save everyone’s lives. “What?” he asks, as the next issue caption box helpfully points out that there will be a Temporal Event in T-16 minutes!